| Harry Anderson | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 11, 1906 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.[1] |
| Died | November 19, 1996 (aged 90) |
| Nationality | American (United States) |
| Field | Painting, Illustration |
| Training | Syracuse School of Art |
| Patrons | Seventh-day Adventist Church, Exxon, numerous magazines |
| Awards | New York Art Directors Club, Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame |
Harry Anderson (August 11, 1906 – November 19, 1996[2]) was an American illustrator and a member of the Illustrator's Hall of Fame. A devout Seventh-day Adventist artist, he is best known for Christian themed illustrations he painted for the Adventist church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was also a popular illustrator of short stories in American weekly magazines during the 1930s and early 1940s.
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Originally intending to be a mathematician, in 1925 while attending the University of Illinois, Anderson discovered a talent and love for drawing and painting.[1] In 1927 he moved to Syracuse, New York and attended the Syracuse School of Art for classical art education.[1] He graduated in 1931 during the Great Depression and had difficulty making a living. Within a year he earned enough by doing art for magazines to return home to Chicago. By 1937 he was working on national advertising campaigns and doing work for several major magazines, such as Collier's, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, The Saturday Evening Post and others.[1]
About 1940 he married Ruth Huebel,[3] a girl who worked in his building and posed for him on one occasion.[1] The following year he went to work for Haddon Sundblom's studio. In 1944 Anderson and his wife joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church and, by request, did a painting of Jesus. Anderson's painting, "What Happened to Your Hand?", depicting Jesus with modern-day children was decried as blasphemous by some adults, but was eventually printed in the publishing program.[1] From that time on, he split his time between commercial illustrations and religious ones. He did the religious-themed pieces for near minimum wage.[1]
He was featured in a 1956 issue of American Artist and received awards from several associations throughout his career. He even was awarded the prestigious New York Art Directors Club. In 1994 he was inducted into the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame, joining such notable illustrators as Norman Rockwell, James Montgomery Flagg, and N.C. Wyeth.[1]
In the 1960s he did work for Exxon Oil (then Esso). In the mid-1960s he was commissioned to create a number of paintings for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He painted a large oil mural of Jesus ordaining his apostles for the 1964 New York World's Fair for the church. Following this, he did at least two dozen more paintings for them.[3] They are displayed in the Salt Lake Temple Square Visitors Center and other prominent locations and can be found in nearly every LDS meetinghouse in the world.[3] The paintings are still widely used by the church for many of their printed and online materials.
In his 70s and 80s, Anderson made western themed paintings for several fine art galleries, a pursuit shared by several well known retired American illustrators of that era.
In his spare time, Anderson enjoyed crafting model ships and buggies, hooking rugs, carving flocks of birds, making furniture and other hands-on crafts.[1]
He died on November 19, 1996.
In March 2008, Anderson's work was discussed on a segment of PBS' History Detectives covering a comic book he did about the famous amputee baseball player Pete Gray.